Page 27 of Finally Loved

Alba grinned, turning to wave off a car that had been idling outside. It was only as it drove away that Neve noticed Zainab in the back, rolling her eyes but also amused.

Neve didn’t understand their relationship at all.

Even if she knew tonight wasn’t anything close to resembling a booty call, it still felt weird to drop the person you were dating off at another woman’s house at two in the morning. Didn’t it?

“Lead the way,” Alba said, her voice low given the late hour.

Neve’s heart raced in her chest. If she’d been expecting anything, she’d been expecting Alba to be drunk. Not completely wasted, perhaps, but very obviously drunk. It seemed fitting of her behavior tonight. Yet, here she was, not seeming very drunk at all. Alert, excitable, but not particularly drunk.

Neve led the way to the elevator and stood nervously in the corner as they ascended. She could feel Alba’s gaze on her, see Alba’s amused smile in her peripheral vision. Everything about the late hour and confined space felt loaded and intimate in a way it had no right to. Neve didn’t know what to do with herself.

She led Alba to her door, pausing to listen as she prayed Charlie wouldn’t be standing on the other side of it. “I’m pretty sure Charlie and Alice are asleep.”

Alba shot her a wicked grin as she mimed zipping her mouth closed and throwing away the key. It had been a long time since Neve had seen someone do that. It had never felt quite so loaded before.

Of course, she’d never been sneaking a woman into her room in the middle of the night before.

She stifled a groan and pushed the door open slowly. The entire situation sounded dirty and suspicious.

Alba stood in the opening to the living room, taking the place in, as Neve locked the door behind them. No sign of Charlie was a good thing, but they still had to make it up the stairs. Perhaps it was a good thing Alba seemed completely sober. Neve couldn’t imagine anyone managing this without their usual faculties.

“This way,” she breathed, the sound barely audible even to herself, as she led Alba towards the stairs.

Her heart was already pounding at the thought of getting caught, but it took off racing when she felt Alba’s fingers take hold of the back of her hoodie. It wasn’t anything untoward, but it wouldn’t look good if they got caught now.

Although, none of it would.

Neve was dressed in her pajamas, while Alba was dressed in a sleek, pink pantsuit with a graphic t-shirt, and makeup that clearly wasn’t from a casual night in. Well, maybe some people wore that much sparkly makeup for a night in, and Neve kind of secretly loved the idea, but nothing about Alba’s look was suggestive of simply staying in. She looked like she was coming in from a night out. It was undeniable.

They made it to Neve’s room without getting caught, and Alba finally dropped her hold on Neve’s hoodie. She breathed a laugh as Neve locked her bedroom door, attempting not to think the move felt suggestive. And then, Neve simply didn’t know what to do with herself. It felt as though she were in someone else’s room, not her own, familiar bedroom that felt alien with Alba standing in it.

Apparently, Alba didn’t have the same qualms.

Still smiling, she took her jacket off and hung it on the back of Neve’s desk chair before slipping her shoes off, leaving them by the door, and collapsing quietly onto Neve’s floor.

Neve fidgeted with the overly long sleeves of her hoodie. “You can lie on the bed.”

Alba lifted her head, amused. “I don’t think you want these pants all over your sheets.”

Reflexively, Neve looked at them. It took longer than it should have to realize the move probably looked like she was checking Alba out.

When she didn’t say anything, Alba breathed a laugh, relaxing her head back to the rug. “You don’t need whatever I picked up in that bar all over your bed.”

“Oh. I guess that’s true.”

“Don’t worry, I don’t expect you to join me on the floor. I’ll just be down here relaxing, don’t mind me.”

If she happened to need a lie down that badly, wouldn’t it just have been easier to go home? She could have seen Neve any other time. Maybe after some sleep.

“Are you tired?” Neve asked, edging a little closer and debating between sitting on the bed or just joining Alba on the floor.

“Hm. Not yet.”

“Okay.” She sat on the floor, her back against the bed.

Alba looked back at her again, her smile radiant. Neve was beginning to wonder if she came in any setting other than smiling.

They sat in silence for a few moments, Neve desperately listening to the sound of the apartment, trying to ensure Charlie and Alice were, in fact, asleep. The longer she heard nothing unusual, the more she found herself relaxing—so long as she didn’t think about trying to get Alba out of there again. Could she push her luck enough to sneak a woman inandout in one night?

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